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BUREAU. 



E. B. WILKERSON A SON, 

MANAGERS, 
DoTHAN. ----- Alabama. 



Correspfii:iclence Sf^licited. 



DOTHAN, ALA. : 

THE WIRE-GRASS vSlFTlNGS. 

1895. 



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Book. 



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Dotlmii, Ala., July, 8 '95. 
"Editor Siftings: 

Since you have expressed your- 
self as being heartily in favor of 
our emigration movement, and 
feeling our need of an exact de- 
scription of this country, we take 
the liberty of asking you to give 
us a written statement of that 
section mentioned in our adver- 
tisement; it's soil, fertility and 
variety of products raised, as well 
as some account of the people. 
Very truly, 
E. B. WiLKRRSON & Son. 

In answer to the above, The 
Siftings could say a great deal, 
and leave, then, the "half untold." 
We will, however, be as brief as 
possible, to be plain. 



SOUTH ALABAMA 



This is an agricultural country, 
rich in resources, and a veritable 
paradise for the farmer. 

The lands are generally level, 
though rolling enough for drain- 
age, and are well watered with 
springs and small brooks of pure 
freestone water. 

THE SOIL 
is fertile, with hard clay sub-soil, 
except the northern portion 
(about Abbeville) which is red 
lo-sm. The central and southern 
portions have gray and dark soil. 
ITS PRODUCTS. 

Cotton, corn, oats, peanuts, 
peas, sugar cane, sweet potatoes, 
melons, peaches, pears, plums, 
apples, grapes, and vegetables of 
all kinds grow in abundance here, 
also wheat and hay. Though the 
lands are not so well adapted to 



IMMIGRATION BUREAU. 



wheat as they are the other pro- 
ducts mentioned. The soil is 
particnlarly snited to corn, pea- 
nuts, sugar cane, potatoes, mel- 
ons and vegetables, and it re- 
quires but little ground and at- 
tention for any family to pro- 
duce an abundant supply of all 
of these things, also to raise plen- 
ty of hogs and cattle for meat, 
milk and butter. 

TURPENTINE AND LUMBER 

are also thriving industries here, 
there being sixteen (i6) large 
turpentine distilleries within ten 
miles of the city of Dothan, and 
as many saw mills. 

THE CLIMATE 

is delightful. The winters are 
mild. We have frosts, and some 
cool weather, generally the first 



SOUTH ALABAMA 



and the latter parts of the winter, 
but rarely ever snow or blizzards. 
About once to every four or five 
years is as often as we have snow. 
The summers, owing to healthful 
waters, pure air and constant 
breezes, are to be spent as pleas- 
antly here as in almost any sec- 
tion of the north. The ther- 
mometor seldom ever reaches 95 z 

THE IMPROVEMENTS, 

The farmers are settled on 
small homesteads, of 40, 80 and 
100 acres, and sometimes 300 to 
600 acres, in this country, though 
there are very few *'big planta- 
tions" in it. Fully one half the 
lands or more are now lying idle, 
unimproved, and there's room for 
three times the population we 
have. 



IMMIGRATION BURKAU. 



THEIR VALUE. 

Good improved farms can be 
bought at $5 to $15 per acre con- 
venient to the railroads and towns 
and unimproved lands for less. 

NEVER FAIL. 

These lands never fail to make 
crops. They upon an average 
produce 15 bushels corn and 400 
lbs seed cotton per acre, but with 
high fertilizing and extra atten- 
tion many of them make as high 
as 40 bushels corn and 1,500 lbs 
seed cotton per acre. Farmers 
who plant and work their crops 
right are never shut out by any 
such things as floods, droughts or 
pestilences. Some times they 
may have a little too much rain 
or not enough but they make 
plenty. 



SOUTH ALABAMA 



THE METROPOLIS 

of this favored section known as 
the "wire-grass," is Dothan. Sit- 
uated on the main line of the 
Plant System of railways 119 
miles from Montgomery, the 
State Capital, and the same dis- 
tance from Thomasville, Ga., a 
famous resort and the popular 
route to Florida and to Savannah; 
it is also the Southern terminus 
of the Abbeville Southern rail- 
way, Dothan is a young town, 
five years of age, with a popula- 
tion of 3,500, good churches, fine 
graded schools, free tuition, water- 
works now under construction, 
many handsome residences and 
brick business houses, all new; 
and the town is backed up by 
one of the best countries this side 
of "homeless France." The city. 



IMMIGRATION BUREAU 



though small, is plucky and fur- 
nishes a good market for the farm- 
ers. The cotton compress at Do- 
than the past season pressed 2 1 ,- 
000 bales cotton, two-thirds of 
which was received from the farm- 
ers' wagon direct here. 

MORE ABOUT IT. 

This is what you might term a 
fine poor mans country. Any 
family who will get a home and 
work can make an easy and in- 
dependent living here. Meat, 
bread, milk, butter, syrup, pota- 
toes, peas, rice, honey, fruits and 
vegetables can be had to waste, 
with a little care. Until very re- 
cently these things were all neg- 
lected for cotton, only about half 
enough being raised, and the bal- 
ance bought wiih the cotton crop. 
But the decline in cotton has 



"3 vSOUTH ALABAMA 



caused the home supplies to re- 
ceive more attention, and the 
farmers are already in a more 
cheerful condition. This writer 
has been through many sections 
of the United States and Canada, 
and is free to say that, in his 
opinion this is one of the most 
desirable countries, all things 
considered, to be found. In the 
language of Governor Gates, "It 
is a mine of wealth, which only 
needs developing." And people 
wanting homes can get them so 
easilv here. 



Gur State is a mine of w^ealth 
which only needs developing. 
We have now every reason to be- 
lieve that good steel will soon be 
made out of our pig iron. What 
vast wealth will be realized from 



IMMIGRATION BITREAI1 



this source pisses beyond the 
bounds of conjecture. We have 
coal enough, if taken froin our 
mines, to supply the entire world, 
at the present rate of consumption 
for more than one hundred and 
fifty years, Iron ore is exhaust- 
less. We have a fair quality of 
marble and excellent building- 
stone. W^e have gdld ore, but 
not yet discovered to exist in pay- 
ing quantities. We have mica, 
aluminum, diopsides topaz and 
other valuable stones. 

Our soil is fairly productive 
and of a variety of characters, 
adapted to the production of cot- 
ton, all kinds of grain nearly 
every kind of vegetable, and 
peaches, pears, apples, plums, 
melons and other fruits. Our 
forests contain woods of choice 



10 SOUTH ALABAMA 

varieties, and are so exhaustless. 
Our climate is mild and consti- 
tutes a standing invitation to the 
people of the frozen regions of the 
Northwest to seek homes among 
us and enjoy the gentle balmy 
breezes of our mild and Spring- 
like climate. We have room in 
Alabama for thousands of law 
abiding and industrous people 
and we want only that kind to 
come. — Extract from a letter of 
Gov. Wm. C. Gates to R. R. Com- 
missioners. 



AN EMIGRANTS OPINION OF THIS 
SECTION. 



With my family, I left Sagi- 
naw% Mich., last May to seek a 
home in a w^armer climate. I 
went first to Evergreen, spending 



IMMIGRATION BUREAU. j j 

some time there, and finding 
strawberries, blackberries, plums, 
tomatoes and almost every 
known variety of vegetables ripe 
and in abundance. Finally I 
come to Doth an, and was so fa- 
vorably impressed with the 
country that I bought a place; 
and I have never had cause to 
regret my choice. I have found 
the people hospitable, and all 
vicing with each other as to 
which shall show the Northern 
stranger the greatest kindness. I 
have found the climate mild, and 
not warmer in summer than in 
the North. I have found the 
soil good and easily improved, 
and I think this is a splendid 
country for a man who wishes to 
live well and enjoy the comforts 
of life. 

D. B. Crosby. 



12 SOUTH ALABAMA 

Dothan, Ala,, July 15th 1895. 
Mess. E. B. Wilkersoii & Son, 
Gentlemen: 

It is with no small degree of 
interest that the authorities of 
the town of Dothan learn of your 
contemplated efforts to secure for 
tliis section of tlie state, a portion 
oi the immigrants from the Wes- 
tern and Northwestern states, 
who are seeking homes in our 
genial Soutliern clime. These 
immigrants are a desirable class of 
citizens, and will receive a hearty 
welcome from our people, and we 
feel assured that all who come 
will be highly pleased with this 
country. A more opportune time 
could not be selected by any one 
to settle in this country, and we 
wish for you much success in 
your undertaking. Yours resp't. 
H. A. Pearce, Mayor. 



IMMIGRATION BUREAU. 



13 



To the three Southeastern 
counties of Alabama, Henry, Dale 
and Geneva, comprising a part 
of what is generally know as the 
^'Wire-Grass" -section. Nature 
has perhaps been more generous 
than to any other section of the 
State, 

While at present on many 
thousands of its fertile acres, 
stand forests of the long leaf yel- 
low pine, its soil is peculiarly 
adapted to diversified agriculture, 
and its forests are gradually dis- 
appearing under the blows of the 
woodman's axe, and in their 
places are appearing well tended 
farms, bearing almost every agri- 
cultural product, adapted to the 
needs of man and the demands 
of commerce. That this liberal 
gift of Nature's is not being 



J 4 SO UTH A I.A B A MA 

wasted, however, is attested by 
the fact that there are within ten 
miles of the city of Dothan, no 
less than sixteen turpentine dis- 
tilleries, doing a lucrative busi- 
ness, giving" employment to 
thousands of laborers, and ship- 
ping their immense output to the 
various markets of the world. 
There are also within the same 
distance as many lumber mills 
manufacturing the yellow pine 
into lumber, some for the large 
and daily growing demand at 
home, others for foreign ship- 
ment. 

The lands are generally level, 
just rolling enough for proper 
drainage and are well watered 
with numberless springs, brooks 
and creeks of pure free stone 
water. • The soil is usually dark, 



IMMIGRATION BUREAU. jr 



witli clay sub3oiL The climate 
is mild and equable, our people 
suffering neither the vigors of ex- 
tremely severe winters, nor any 
oppressing heat in summer. 
Snow is not seen here oftener 
than once in four or five years 
and our close proximity to the 
Gulf of Mexico gives us a never- 
ceasing breeze in summer. With 
an atmosphere free of malaria, or 
miasmotic influences the health 
of the people is universally and 
exceptionally good. The natur- 
al producing capacity of the soil, 
measured in terms of corn and 
cotton is from 12 to 25 bushels 
of corn or from y^ to y. bale of 
cotton per acre. The lands how- 
ever respond more readily to fer- 
tilizing than any other lands m 
the world, and by the judicious 



1 5 SOUTH ALABAMA 

use of home-made or commercial 
fertilizer can soon be brought up 
at small cost to a capacity of 
from 20 to 40 bushels of corn or 
}4 to }{ bale of cotton per acre. 
As well as the crops mentioned, 
small grain, such as oats, rye, 
barley and rice as well as millet 
and the bttst grasses, may be 
grown as profitably as in any oth- 
er section of the United States. 
And in addition to these, our 
people find good profit in raising- 
peas, peanuts, chufas, sweet pota- 
toes and sugar cane. Fine or- 
chards of peaches, pears, plums, 
apples, mulberries and grapes 
may be seen on nearly every farm 
and strawberry culture is begin- 
ning to receive its share of atten- 
tion. The farmers of this section 
are just waking up to a realizing 



IMMIGRATION BUREAU. j>j 

sense of the fact that melons may 
be as profitably raised here for 
the northern, eastern and western 
markets as elsewhere; the ship- 
ments this year from this imme- 
diate section will amount to three 
or four hundred carloads. Near- 
ly every vegetable that grows is 
successfully raised here; it is a 
source of wonder that truck farm- 
ing is receiving so little attention 
when 95 per cent of the people 
produce for their own use almost 
every known variety of vegetable, 
and of the finest raised anywhere 
in the world. Truck farming is 
destined within a very few years 
to become one of the best paying 
industries of the country. 

This is pre-eminently and dis- 
tinctively the home of the ^'small 
farmer" as well as a veritable El 



SOUTH ALABAMA 



Dorado for the poor man. Good 
soil, susceptible of unlimited im- 
provement, and virtually inex- 
haustible, knowing not the ca- 
lamity of long drouths, extreme 
stress of weather, nor a failure in 
crops, with good water, mild cli- 
mate, pure atmosphere insuring' 
health and long life; with a mor- 
al and intelligent citizenship 
already here and alive to the in- 
terests of good schools and 
churches with good but unim- 
proved lands obtainable at two to 
five dollars per acre and the best 
improved lands in tlie territory of 
Dothan the '^Queen of the Wire- 
Grass," from $5,00 to $15.00 per 
acre, with good railroad facilities 
for the cheap and rapid shipment 
of the numerous products of the 
soil, with a soil fertile, well 



watered and level enough 



IMMIGRATION BUREAU 



19 



to be easily cultivated by 
machinery, with a popula- 
tion conip3sed almost entirely 
of white people, wlio are hospit- 
able, law abiding and friendh', 
wliat better or more attractive in- 
ducements could be offered to 
home seekers. The truth of what 
we have :^aid is already being 
realized by other people, immi- 
grants from the cold Northern 
States have already begun to 
come, and capitalist are realizing 
that no better investments can be 
found than in South Alabama. 
The final survey of the South 
Alabama and Gulf R. R. from 
Dothan to Selma is just being 
completed, and a railroad from 
Dothan to St. Andrews Bay is 
now under contemplation, and is 
sure to be built some time soon. 



20 SOUTH ALABAMA 

This is the coming section of 
Alabama. Now property is 
cheap, and the conntry not more 
than half settled. A comfortable 
home with a hundred acres of 
land can be bought with from 
$500.00 to $1,000.00; and upon 
this land some one or two crops 
can be growing the whole year 
round. Work can be done out 
of doors, in forest or on farm, all 
the year round. We are never 
"snowed in;" the temperature 
rarely falling below 50^. 

To this section we invite your 
attention, all inquiries as to the 
condition, opportunities, and ad- 
vantages of Alabama will be 
promptly and fully answered. 
This bureau will take pleasure in 
answering inquiries as to an)' 
portion of Alabama, and in giv- 



IMMIGRATION BUREAU. 2 1 



iiig any assistance in its power to 
capital seeking investment, or 
people seeking homes anywhere 
in the State. 



BELOW ARE SAMPLES OF THE 

BARGAINS THAT WE HAVE 

FOR SALE. 



140 acres within two miles of 
Dothan, 75 acres in fine state* of 
cultivation. Good cow pasture. 
Timbered lands have never been 
touched by an axe. Good W9ter. 
Good house, with school in sight. 

Price $1,300.00. 



80 acres of land near city. 40 
acfes of it in city limits. Good 
land, well cultivated, with dwel- 
ling house and seven out houses. 

Price $25.00 per acre. 



22 



SOUTH ALABAMA 



90 acres 3^ miles from Do- 
thaii, 45 acres cleared and in fine 
state of cultivation. Well wat- 
ered, and timber good. 

Price $400.00. 



920 acres in Dale Co. Level 
land, well improved, 200 acres 
in cultivation. Almost new seven 
room dwelling which cost $1,- 
000.00; three good tenant houses. 

Price $3,000.00, 



1,100 acres, 300 acres in culti- 
vation, 800 acres in yellow pine, 
fine orchards; 4 settlements. 

Price $4,000.00. 



250 acres on Chattahoochie 
river — all in river bottom, and 
in cultivation. Several houses. 

Price $1,500.00. 



IMMIGRATION BUREAU. 



23 



160 acres near Dothan; 40 
acres in fine state of cnltivation, 
good orchard, and nice frame 
honse. 

Price $500.00. 



40 acres; 25 acres cleared; 
plenty timber and water. Good 
frame house and orchard. Level 
land; near railroad. Splendid 
place. Terms $400.00. 



800 acres. 300 acres cleared; 
S settlements. One frame 6 room 
honse and other smaller houses. 
All new. Railroad runs through 
entire tract. Level, and can be 
cultivated by machinery. One of 
the best farms in the State. 

Price $5,000.00; one half cash, 
balance in installments to suit 
purchaser. 



24 



SOUTH ALABAMA 



300 acres; 75 acres in fine state 
of cultivation, rest in fine yellow 
pine; well watered, with good 
house and necessary out-build- 



Price $1,200. 



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